


ghosts that we knew; five things about kanji and naoto in the persona 4 hunger games

by warfare



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2012-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-18 21:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/565641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warfare/pseuds/warfare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Downstairs the Capitol is screaming itself hoarse, rumbling into the night. She offers him her arm, and he takes it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ghosts that we knew; five things about kanji and naoto in the persona 4 hunger games

**Author's Note:**

  * For [derogatory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/derogatory/gifts).



1.

The first time Naoto hears the name “Tatsumi Kanji”, she looks past the red tint around his ears, the slight wobble in the last step he takes up onto the stage, and focuses instead on the way Margaret’s breath at every gushing word of praise creeps visibly out of the corners of her mouth in a light fog. Here at home the edges of spring are creeping up the walls and fences, threatening even the podium in front of her where District 2’s tributes had until only so recently been standing; she’s even opted this year to dress in a light shirt for the Reaping, but the sky in District 8 threatens the continuation of winter and all participants’ Reaping finest is obscured by thick coats. In spite of the obvious care taken to spit-polish anything the camera might record, Naoto’s eyes have always been treacherously good, and she can’t help noticing the thin layer of pollution that seems to have settled over the district’s residents like dust. As the screen flashes the final shots of District 8’s reaping she wonders to herself if the fog leaving Margaret’s lips and dancing over the new District 8 tributes has been tinted blue for effect.

Later, over lunch at school, she admits that this year’s male tribute from District 8 is definitely larger than the normal lot; that there’s certainly something mean about his face; that this time those spinners might indeed have a better showing than usual. She doesn’t bring up the obvious – his shaking hands, his trembling lips, the fact that he’s just her age, that he doesn’t stand a chance. That she’s lucky to live in a district where volunteerism determines tributes. When interviewed, he isn’t able to make eye contact with his own stylist, and he spends most of the pre-game celebrations looking annoyed and uncomfortable.

In the games the male tribute from District 8 is almost a non-participant; he has something of a skill at weaving and camouflage, and he applies it by painting himself into the scenery, making himself virtually undetectable. Ultimately it takes three careers – two of whom are from Naoto’s hometown – and a planned brushfire to force him out. In spite of her distaste for the games, she rewatches the end three times after it’s all over, but she never manages to catch where he got the live wires, to say nothing of where he hid them. Ultimately, she reassures herself, it’s the careers’ fault for getting too close. Even the last one doesn’t have time to move before he’s gotten her. The charge sends her flying. Naoto tries not to think of the smell, but when Kanji hears the cannonfire proclaiming his victory he promptly falls to his knees and vomits before the editors can redirect the cameras. It’s a less than ideal end to the games, she assumes, but this is the first and only time she has nightmares.

 

2.

Kanji still isn’t used to watching the Games from the Capitol - truthfully, he isn’t used to anything about the Capitol yet - but he supposes it’s better than having to go home to do it. Kujikawa’s asked him to watch the Reaping with her; this is her first year after her own victory, but her upbringing has prepared her almost as well for victor duties as it did for slaughtering her competitors. 

“Still having trouble with women?” Kujikawa teases him as he flinches away from a passing patron. Kanji hates that his cheeks are flushing crimson and prays that no one watching reports to the papers that ‘Singing Sensation From District One Flusters Bashful Tatsumi Kanji Once Again!’ He can’t bear to tell her why he’s still afraid of the woman who has passed them, or really any women beyond her, and also can’t bear to meet her eyes. He lets her continue to laugh, face contorting into futile anger that he knows will only wind her up more. She’s tucking newly-dyed curls behind an ear, still laughing in a way he knows she’s practiced to be effortless and charming. It lasts a little too long, though, and drowns out the announcement for District 1’s reaping. Kanji remembers that she doesn’t have any siblings, but she has a cousin. Not pointing out that someone will inevitably volunteer from her district - as she herself did just a year ago - is the best kindness he can muster.

“Ah, maybe that one’s more your type!!” Kujikawa continues, pointing out one of the new tributes for District 2. “Maybe if he wins he’ll come to watch with us next year!” The boy she’s indicating is slight, with dark hair and blue eyes and an unreadable expression. It takes both of them a beat to realize that the caption reads,

\- SHIROGANE NAOTO-

\- DISTRICT TWO (F) -

\------

From: Kujikawa Rise  
Sent: 2:58 AM, Wednesday  
Shirogane Naoto is apparently a child prodigy! She comes from a long line of high-ranking peacekeepers, but she herself was raised by her grandfather. Apparently she was raised as a man!! This may come as a surprise to you Kanji-kun given your background, but

From: Kujikawa Rise  
Sent: 2:58 AM, Wednesday  
Where I come from that kind of thing is taken really seriously!! Anyway apparently she’s been living as a boy this whole time, even standing in the boy’s section at the reaping - if her grandpa hadnt been such a big deal hed have deffo gotten in so much trouble right

From: Kujikawa Rise  
Sent: 2:59, Wednesday  
GUESS WHOS GONNA BE NAOTO SHIROGANES STYLIST JUST GUESS

From: Kujikawa Rise  
Sent: 2:59, Wednesday  
SERIOUSLY GUESS

From: Kujikawa Rise  
Sent: 3:00, Wednesday  
TEDDIE!!! PERFECTO RIGHT. man i cant even wait to see what he puts her in

\---

Kanji turns off his phone, rolls over and tries to get back to sleep, wills himself to stop remembering the flip at the back of Naoto Shirogane’s hair, the masculine tremor in her voice. He knows he has an important sponsor meeting tomorrow with a woman who smells like face powder. Even knowing the District 2 tribute’s gender, when he pictures her outfitted for the games she’s in boy’s clothes. In his mind’s eye, her shoulders seem impossibly strong for how slight they are. Ultimately, when he sees her outfitted in a dress for her victory celebration he can’t shake the feeling of disappointment.

 

3.

Rise knows that Naoto’s already been assigned a mentor from District 2, but she sends out an invitation for a spa date the moment that she hears that the newest victor has hit the capitol following her victory tour. When Naoto’s team lets hers know that she can’t make it, she sends a series of increasingly furious messages to Kanji.

“Who does she think she is?!” She fumes into the speaker, spinning herself in her chair aimlessly. “Does she think I’m made of time or something?! I mean, like, no big deal, I’m just the most popular singing sensation in all of Panem, I’ve got _all_ the time, like whatever, right.”

Kanji’s response doesn’t come for a while, but when it does, he sounds unsure.

“Kujikawa, wasn’t she raised as a guy? I can’t imagine a spa treatment is really her thing...”

Rise finds a lot about Kanji obnoxious, but the worst by far is when he manages to point out something that’s completely obvious. She waits a few weeks - no need to come off as desperate! - before asking Teddie to bring Naoto out to lunch. This time, the new victor acquiesces. 

“So, Naoto-kun, how’re you adjusting to life in the Capitol?”

It’s clear that Naoto isn’t used to small talk or pleasantries; she sits uncomfortably straight in her chair, hands clenched in her skirt. Rise feels her irritation rising.

“Still uncomfortable here, huh? That’s unexpected; you’d think it’d be easy for you to adapt, what with how fast you took out everyone else in your year.” She regrets it the moment she says it, and it hangs uncomfortably between them for a moment.

“They didn’t expect me to wear a skirt during the games,” Naoto admits, and her pokerface is good enough that Rise can’t tell for a second if she’s being sincere. It’s enough to make her laugh anyway, a mean, hard bark that’s different enough from her practiced bubbling giggles to draw the attention of other patrons.

“Fair.”

Rise decides in that moment that she likes Naoto in spite of herself. They make lunch a weekly affair; the other girl seems unsure at first, but Rise’s in good enough with Teddie that she manages to make herself a part of her routine.

 

4.

“God, Kanji-kun,” Kujikawa gripes, pushing her hair out of her eyes exasperatedly. “I only let you come because you, like, promised you wouldn’t be weird. Would you cut it out with the spazzing?”

Lately Rise’s been cutting down on the cutesy thing in front of him, which he hates to admit sets him much more at ease. He assumes her stylist and manager told her acting that way was cuter and would widen her appeal, and it isn’t like he’s holding her method of keeping her family safe against her, but it’s always given him the heebie-jeebies. Still, seeing as how her act is her bread and butter, it worries him a little to see her drop it in public. She looks tired and cranky.

His intent to ask her if she’s doing okay is interrupted, however, when Naoto makes her way back to the table. At first Kanji’d thought that he’d be better with Naoto than he is with normal girls; in fact, the opposite has proven true. It’s not like he’s got Rise’s natural ease in front of other people at the best of times, but facing Naoto’s boyishness does him in every time.

Rise’s mood does not go unnoticed by the tabloids. Neither, luckily, does his discomfort around Naoto; within a matter of days every magazine in the Capitol is waxing hysteric about the love triangle between them. Kanji’s patrons aren’t happy, but the story is entertaining enough not to put his mother in any real danger.

 

5.

“We don’t have anything like this in District 8,” Tatsumi-kun admits, looking out over the ocean hologram plastered across Naoto’s room. It’s a strange conversation to have between breaks in the Games, but she supposes it’s also the first time he’s ever been in her apartment.

“Not at home, either,” she confesses, “but we’ve got some simulations.” She’s never seen the ocean, but Yakushiji has; when she was a child she used to wonder what it must be like. In spite of her usual ease regarding information seeking, for some reason she’s never quite worked up the courage to admit her curiosity to Hanamura. “I understand this is a quite good approximation, however.”

Both of them inhale deeply, trying to catch a whiff of saltwater. Mostly Naoto smells cleaning chemicals, hears the roaring of the crowd outside. In a few minutes more they’ll have to return downstairs, watch Seta Souji try to sleep as three careers bear ever closer down on him. She knows it isn’t safe to talk openly about the games, but she’s relieved anyway when Tatsumi-kun mutters,

“He’s checking the actual machinery of it, isn’t he? Trying to find cracks in the game.”

She nods.

“They’ll kill him, right.” There’s a note of regret in the back of his voice; she does her best to swallow her own.

“Almost certainly.”

There’s the feeling that they have a lot to say to each other. When three cannons go off, their breaths hitch at the same time. Neither of them manage to exhale until they’ve confirmed the absence of Seta Souji’s face from the list of the dead.

“We should go downstairs.” Naoto shrugs off her boy’s coat, shoulders bare to the cold light of the screen. “Kujikawa will be worried.” She reaches for a wrap, but before her arm makes it a weight settles onto her shoulders. Tatsumi-kun’s taken off his jacket and put it over her.

“It’s fine if it’s mine, right?” He won’t meet her eyes. “T-the men’s jacket.”

It takes her a minute to react, but she smiles. “Tatsumi-kun, you’re too kind.” With that kind of behavior, it’s a wonder he wasn’t killed. It’s a strange thing to recall, but she remembers him vomiting upon announcement of his victory. She doesn’t tell him she watched, just as he pretends not to remember watching her gun down the other District 2 tribute before he ever reached the Cornucopia.

Downstairs the Capitol is screaming itself hoarse, rumbling into the night. She offers him her arm, and he takes it.


End file.
